Heavenly Homemakers

Encouraging women in homemaking, healthy eating and parenting

All Chocolate, All the Time, All Less Than $1.00

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I think we should have a chocolate themed “Less than $1.00” day – wouldn’t you agree?

$1.00 or Less Recipes, Crafts, Gift Ideas, and more!

Chocolate for breakfastYum

I’ll start us off with a breakfast (or snack) recipe that tastes quite a bit like a specialty store-bought granola, but costs much less. This Dark Chocolate Almond Granola is our family’s favorite of all granola options. It costs less than $1.00 per serving!

Tip: Want to make granola this summer, but prefer to leave the oven off as much as possible to avoid heating up the house? Make it with this 5-Minute Stove-Top Granola Making Method. I kind of like cheating and making granola this way. Be sure to wait and add the chocolate pieces after you’ve removed it from the stove. Come to think of it, you could just stir them right in to make a chocolate coating all over the granola. No one would complain, right?

dark_chocolate_almond_granola

Make your own Chocolate Milk Mix!

Follow the recipe for Homemade Chocolate Syrup and not only will you be avoiding high fructose corn syrup, it’ll cost you less than $1.00 for the whole batch. You’ll notice that I wrote that recipe before I began cutting down the sugar quantities in my recipes. Feel free to experiment with using less sugar. I’m sure it will still taste great!

Homemade Chocolate Syrup

Here’s another variety of chocolate milk mix you might enjoy: Homemade Nesquik! Again, that entire mix can be made for about $1.00. :)

Make Your Own Nesquik

Make your own Frappe

Save a bundle by avoiding the coffee shop and making yourself a Chocolate Frappe at home. A big glass of this definitely costs less than $1.00. You can make this as sweet or as “barely sweet” as you like. I use stevia, but you can use sugar if you prefer.

Healthy Homemade Chocolate Frappe

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups?

Yep. These Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups aren’t necessarily low in sugar, but they are made with healthier ingredients. I only make these every once in a while as a special treat – and they fit the theme because they are less than $1.00!

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups

See the other “less than $1.00” ideas I shared this week here and here. More “less than $1.00” ideas coming up tomorrow!

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Bread, Recipe Card Craft, Service Ideas, and More – All Less Than $1.00

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I’ve got more “make it for less than $1.00” ideas for you today! If you missed yesterday’s list of ideas, go check them out. It’s fun sharing all these super inexpensive ideas with you this week!

$1.00 or Less Recipes, Crafts, Gift Ideas, and more!

First, the simplest craft idea ever:

Remember when I posted about how to make these cute Recipe Card Holders? These are incredibly fun and cute and EASY. The cost for each is about 20¢. Read the details here, and read other ideas for how to use these. (They’re not just great for holding recipes!)

recipe card holder6

Want to teach your kids to cook this summer?

The Kids Cook Real Food eCourse will be open next week. But for this week? Sign them up for the go check them out Malachi (our youngest) learned so much from these (and the entire course). Seeing as $FREE$ is much less than even $1.00, go check them out.

Homemade 100% Whole Grain Bread for a Buck

You can’t buy a loaf of 100% Whole Grain bread for $1.00 – or at least I sure can’t. You also can’t beat homemade bread. This Stir-and-Pour Bread recipe is just about as easy as it gets because you don’t even have to knead it. You can make this so quickly!

stir and pour bread loaf 5

Bread Mix in a Jar – Make it for a Gift!

You can either bake some of the Stir-and-Pour Bread to share with someone, or you can follow these directions to make the mix-in-a-jar to give as a gift. Either way, what a fun way to love on someone! You can also use the free printable gift tags (found on this page) to go with your jar.

Stir-and-Pour Bread Mix Gift Jar with Free Printable Gift Tags

More fun bread variations – all for $1.00

Use the basic Stir-and-Pour Bread recipe to make these too:

Watch for more “less than $1.00” ideas coming up tomorrow!

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Favorite Summer Things Giveaway – 2016

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It’s fun to gather up many of my favorite things and put them all together into one big giveaway. That’s why I’m joining this fun group of bloggers again this year. Enter my giveaway – enter them all! You could win some pretty incredible packages and get to know some great bloggers too. Here’s what the giveaways all look like this year:

Favorite Summer Things

Sweet huh?

If you’re new here, welcome!

If you’ve been hanging out here for a while now, I’m glad you’re here too. :) :) Everyone is invited to join us for these fun features:

You’ll get fun freebies with each of those, plus I’ll keep sending encouragement, deals, and freebies your way.

Here’s what I’m giving away this year to kick off the summer

Take note: Each of these companies were kind enough to sponsor this giveaway!

  • A “Night Owl” Flexi-Clip from Lilla Rose, valued at $14.00, to keep your hair pulled up off your neck
  • A Half-Tee Tank from Deborah and Co., valued at $17.99, perfect to wear under sun dresses in the summertime
  • 1/2 pound of Vanilla Beans from Olive Nation, valued at $39.95, so you can get a batch of Homemade Vanilla started for Christmas gifts
  • Bug Block Stick and BeeSilk Stick from MadeOn, valued at $16.40, to keep the bugs away and your skin soft
  • Herbal Salve from Apothacary Kids, valued at $11.95, for bumps and scrapes since we’re all outside more during the summer
  • A Quart of Coconut Oil and a Gallon of Palm Shortening from Tropical Traditions, valued at $64.49, perfect for cooking –  plus rub on some coconut oil if you get a sunburn

Total value? Almost $165!!

My giveaway

My Favorite Things Summer Giveaway

Enter here!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Check out the other bloggers’ giveaways!

1. Thriving Home // 2. Tried and Tasty // 3. Intoxicated on Life // 4. Nourishing Joy // 5. Happy Home Fairy // 6. The Nourishing Home // 7. Heavenly Homemakers // 8. Keeper of the Home // 9. Living the Nourished Life // 10. The Realistic Mama // 11. Chaos2Peace // 12. Martha Martha // 13. Young Wife’s Guide

thriving-home-logo-FINAL-WEB copyThriving Home

Thriving Home is a food and lifestyle blog where Polly and Rachel strive to encourage moms to thrive in every area of home life. They try to keep it real when it comes to sharing about healthy recipes, raising little people, growing in their faith, freezer cooking and various other topics that motherhood and life may bring their way.

chaos2peace_logoChaos2Peace

Jennifer and her family live in the South. She and her husband, Fred, have three boys ages 12, 9, and 6, and one unruly dog named Dash. Chaos2Peace is a blog designed to bring peace in the midst chaos by providing organizational tips, menu planning, simple recipes, and a whole lot of laughter. Join us on the blog today as we do life together, one step at a time.

Screen Shot 2016-05-04 at 12.56.28 PMHappy Home Fairy

Julie Brasington is the wife of a South Florida Worship Pastor, mom of 2 busy boys, preschool teacher, and lover of {{dark}} chocolate chips. She is also the creator and author of Happy Home Fairy, a popular blog focusing on encouraging and equipping moms to choose joy on the parenting journey. She shares easy craft ideas, FREE printables, simple recipes, corny jokes, holiday fun, thoughts on raising kids, and honest, heartfelt messages to uplift the weary mama.

heavenly homemaker logoHeavenly Homemakers

Laura Coppinger and her husband have four sons ages 11-18. HeavenlyHomemakers.com is dedicated to inspiring women daily with healthy (and easy!) recipes, homemaking tips, spiritual encouragement, and good ol’ clean fun.

TNH-Grab-button-150x150The Nourishing Home

The Nourishing Home provides family-friendly gluten-free recipes, free weekly whole food meal plans, helpful cooking tips & techniques, and lots of encouragement to help you in your journey to live a more nourished life.

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Tried and Tasty

Tried and Tasty is a recipe website where fun, conversational writing is paired with top notch food photography. Join Yvonne as she warmly welcomes you into her kitchen and shows you how to wow your tastebuds!

header march 2015The Nourished Life

The Nourished Life is all about approaching health and wellness from a place of balance. Getting healthy should not be another source of stress in your life! We tackle everything from metabolism to body image to emotional wellness to DIY beauty. If you’re ready to break up with stress and body hate, and embrace a healthier approach to, well, being healthy, then our community might be the perfect fit for you.

TRMlogoFINALThe Realistic Mama

The Realistic Mama is a go-to parenting blog that covers a little of everything but always focusing on spending more quality time with your kids. You’ll find parenting encouragement and kids activities but you’ll also find things like easy recipes and even entrepreneurial tips because through these you will then have more time for your family.

KOTH-logo (1)Keeper of the Home

Keeper of the Home is a resource for women and families who are striving to be healthy – body, mind, and soul. It covers a wide range of topics from healthy recipes, cleaning practices and self-care. Keeper of the Home is a community of women in all seasons of life. Our inspiration begins with our faith. Stewardship inspires the way that we approach our homemaking. In fact, it’s the foundation of what you’ll find when you pull up a chair, grab a mug of something delicious, and come share this journey with us

logo with avatar 400Nourishing Joy

Nourishing Joy is dedicated to real food and natural living. We’re on a mission to equip and inspire parents like you with the tools to make intentional, thoughtful decisions that work for YOUR family easy. Or at least easier.

image1Martha, Martha

Martha, Martha is for busy women looking to live a more productive and peaceful life based on faith in Jesus. Household tips, life strategies, easy recipes and devotions come together as we focus on Jesus’ words to Martha “only one thing is needed.”

Mailchimp Header - YWGYoung Wife’s Guide

Jami Balmet has a heart for encouraging women in their roles as homemakers and that what we do every single day matters. She blogs about this passion at Young Wife’s Guide with practical tools, tips, and inspiration for Biblical Homemaking and Christian Living. Come join our community for encouragement and to chat with like-minded women in all seasons and stages of life.

IOL_Header_Design_no_taglineIntoxicated on Life

Intoxicated on Life is a site dedicated to bringing readers quality resources on raising strong families – body, mind, and soul!

 

These giveaways are open through Monday, May 30 at 12:00am CST. Watch for an email letting you know who the winner is! The winner will have one week to reply to the email and receive her prizes. Some of these links are my affiliate links. 

Have fun! Hope you win!

Heavenly Homemaker's Club Members: Access your homepage and all your fantastic resources here! Not a member yet? Please join us!

This Week at Heavenly Homemakers: What You Can Cook, Read, Serve, and Craft for a Dollar or Less

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Over the weekend I had a fun idea to highlight some of my fun money saving ideas for you. So this week, I’ll be posting:

  • Meals you can serve your family for a $1.00 or less per plate
  • Crafts you can make with your kids for $1.00 or less
  • Ways you can serve/bless others for $1.00 or less
  • Random $1.00 or less tips
  • Freebies

It’s going to be kind of hodge-podge because I’m trying to keep you on your toes. Or maybe I’m just unorganized. (Hey, I’m working on it.)

$1.00 or Less Recipes, Crafts, Gift Ideas, and more!

First a fun craft and service idea for around a dollar or less

You all know I’m not the craftiest gal among us. But I can cut and glue, so there’s that. I had fun making these fun Owl Gift Sacks a couple years ago. You’ll find the free printables for this project here. Print ’em off, cut, glue, and fill the sacks with a treat to share. Get your kids involved. Have fun!

Owl Gift Sacks Free Printable

Now how about a recipe?

It’s the perfect time of year to put Garden Veggie Chicken Skillet on your menu frequently. This is a one-dish meal. It uses many vegetables, you can make it to your family’s liking, and it doesn’t cost much to make. I’ve calculated that it costs $1.00 or less per plate!

Garden Veggie Chicken Skillet 2

Want more inexpensive recipes?

You’ll get this eBooklet for free when you sign up to be a part of the Homemaker’s Savings Club. That’s the newsletter where I keep you up to date on all the best homemaking deals I find!

Top 10 Money Saving Recipes cover

Stay tuned all week for many more fun $1.00 or less ideas!

Subscribe here to make it easy to keep up!

The running list:

I’ll continue to update this post all week with the newest links to $1.00 or less ideas shared!

~ Tuesday: Bread, Recipe Card Craft, Service Ideas, and More

~ Wednesday: All Chocolate, All the Time

Heavenly Homemaker's Club Members: Access your homepage and all your fantastic resources here! Not a member yet? Please join us!

Burning Barns, Talking Spiders, and Loving Literature With the Kids

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I’ve loved the Charlotte’s Web classic book since I was a little girl. I wanted to get my own baby pig and find a cool spider in my own barn. (I also wanted a pet monkey, thanks to Curious George.)

As it turns out, I actually did have pigs, which turned out to be – something else. But we’ll stop there. I mean, should we even talk about what happened with our barn? (Really. It’s fine. I’m over it.)

And that's where the barn was...

Just last week my brother took his kids to the property where he and I grew up.
My sis-in-law later posted this pic to Facebook and tagged me with the caption,
“And that’s where the barn was…”
I can’t stop laughing at this.

(What? You don’t know my barn story? Go read this.)

Seeing as my pigs were not cute, nor did they talk, and the actual spiders in our barn (may it rest in peace) creeped me out – I lived vicariously through Fern, Wilbur, and Charlotte. Did you, too? Did you love this book?

Do you still love this book?!!

Ahhh, Charlotte’s Web

I have read this book to my kids several times through the years. Last summer, I picked it up again to read to Malachi. He saw the cover – with a girl and a pig on it – and he was like, “Meh. I don’t think I’m going to like this book.” I told him to give it a try with me and see if he didn’t change his mind. I’m pretty sure I had him hooked about three sentences in.

Main point of this post: Read with your kids, enjoy books with your kids, love experiencing life through books with your kids. But now back to Charlotte’s Web…

wilbur and charlotte

We had so much fun reading this book together that it wasn’t long before we started creating projects. Then games. Then snacks. Then I thought of some learning activities he could do as we read. (There are some great vocab words in there. Malachi uses the greeting, “Salutations!” regularly now just because he loves the word, thank you, Charlotte.)

Activities and projects and games and “recipes” and crafts turned into 41-pages of family fun and learning. We decided to put it all together in a book and share it with you. This is THE BEST way to make learning fun.

Since creating this book was quite a labor intensive project – and turned into 41 pages worth of educational fun – I can’t give this to everyone for a $0.00 price-tag like I’ve been able to do with several of the learning packets I’ve created the past few months. (I’ve got more of those freebies in the works, by the way.) Instead, we came up with a better idea, in which you and I both win!

The price is low, but the value is high in our Learning Through Literature packet focused on the marvelous Charlotte’s Web classic book!

Grab your packet today and start using it with your entire family!

Our Heavenly Homemaker’s Club Members have access to this amazing resource plus ALL of our eBooks, eCurriculum, printables, and so much more – for one very low price! Join us here!

Or purchase separately below:

Charlotte’s Web ~ Learning Through Literature
$7.95

[wp_eStore_fancy1 id=1]

Heavenly Homemaker's Club Members: Access your homepage and all your fantastic resources here! Not a member yet? Please join us!

Veggie-n-Egg Scramble ~ A Great Last Minute Meal Idea

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I think this Veggie-n-Egg Scramble might become one of my favorite and most relied upon go-to meals.

Veggie and Egg Scramble

Yum

I used to make something like this years ago, but kind of forgot about it. Weird how that happens.

A few weeks ago, I needed a quick meal before we headed out to a soccer game. I didn’t have time to cook meat, but I did have a fridge full of veggies and a few dozen eggs. I called the boys into the kitchen and started throwing vegetables and knives at them. Hold on. That didn’t come out right. I didn’t throw knives at them. (Peppers maybe, but not knives.) I’m just saying I started handing out jobs and we all worked together to make this quick and nourishing meal.

Everyone started chopping until my big electric skillet looked like this:

Veggies for veggie scramble
All the veggies are good in this Veggie-n-Egg Scramble, but I will suggest that onions are a key player. Onions give this dish such amazing flavor! Sweet peppers are a close second. Broccoli, asparagus, zucchini, and spinach come next. The beauty is that you can use whatever veggies you like and whatever you have on hand.

Saute the veggies in olive oil or butter until tender. Scramble in some eggs with salt. Toss in a little cheese for extra amazingness. So much deliciousness. Very little work. Extra wonderful nourishment.

Veggie-n-Egg Scramble ~ A Great Last Minute Meal Idea
 
Save Print
Author:
Serves: 3-4
Ingredients
  • 4 cups chopped veggies (onions, sweet peppers, zucchini, asparagus, spinach, broccoli, or any others you like in any combination)
  • 3 Tablespoons butter or olive oil
  • 6 eggs
  • 2 Tablespoons milk
  • sea salt to taste
  • shredded cheese to taste
Instructions
  1. Saute vegetables in oil or butter until tender.
  2. Meanwhile, crack eggs into a bowl and whip with milk.
  3. Pour egg mixture over cooked veggies and salt as you like.
  4. Scramble the eggs with the veggies until they are cooked through.
  5. Sprinkle cheese on top to melt.
  6. Serve

I at least double this for my family of 6 big eaters. Plus we serve it with fresh fruit. Buttered toast also helps fill them up. Seriously. We really do eat and keep eating at our house.

TIP: If you happen to have leftover ham or bacon – even chicken or beef – hanging out in your fridge, those would be a wonderful addition to this dish.

This meal has become one of the easiest ways to get my family to eat a big variety of veggies in one meal. It ranks right up there with Easy Noodle Stir-Fry.

Easy Veggie and Egg Scramble

Do you ever make a meal like this at your house? What veggies would you or do you include? 

It’s meals like this that make “teaching our kids about nutrition” quite natural.

P.S. It is worth noting that this dish makes it possible to feed my family very well for about $1.00 per plate. (We won’t talk about how many plates we go through during a meal…)

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How We Teach Our Kids About Nutrition

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Our family has been on our healthy eating journey for over 10 years now. Yep. I’ve been shunning the margarine and pushing the veggies and serving the spinach and delighting in the free-range eggs for over a decade.

As a result, all of my kids hate junk food. They snack on huge bowls of greens and never ask for chips. They read all the labels and become excited when they know asparagus is on sale.

If you believe that, you should probably go read this post. 

The Truth About My Family and Junk Food

The truth is, my kids like Doritos and store-bought pizza just like most. I’ve chosen not to freak out about this, seeing as freaking out is rarely a blessing for anyone. And also: you should go read all of these thoughts. That’s where I’ve chosen to land.

So what about nutrition? How do we teach our kids about nutrition?

I hadn’t found any books that I felt taught nutrition they way I wanted. So instead, we’ve done what has come naturally:

1. We talk about it 

As you can imagine, food is a popular topic in the Coppinger household. Mom loves nutrition and cooking. Dad and the boys love to eat.

Through the years I’ve shared what I’m learning about nutrition while we hang out in the kitchen or while we’re eating together. I don’t force the information, but they’ve caught the gist: Real food is where it’s at. Please pass the butter.

2. We focus on making our nourishing food taste good

Yes, our boys like candy. But they also love nourishing food because what’s not to love about Strawberry Cheesecake Parfaits and BLT Tossed Salads?

One of the things I love most about real food is that the more nourishing it is, the better it tastes. There is so much good flavor in natural foods! Imagine that. We don’t have to create tasty food in a factory. God already made food amazing.

3. We model it

We continue to add more and more fruits and vegetables to our diets. Matt and I load up our own plates, and get excited about food from the garden or from Bountiful Baskets. We drink several glasses of water every day.

Ultimately, our kids are learning about nutrition because of what they see and what is available in the home. Not to worry. They also see us sometimes compromising on food choices. I like to think that since we do this without freaking out, they will have a healthy understanding of what it means to enjoy treats and will hopefully keep a relaxed perspective on food instead of making it an idol.

Why I Usually Don’t Like Books About Nutrition

I’ve had two major issues with books that teach about nutrition:

  1. They are too heady and overwhelming to hand to a kid. (I’m talking to you, Nourishing Traditions.)
  2. Or, they are based on FDA standards, which focus on eating low fat, counting calories, and eating a lot of grain products. Basically they give a lot of information as “fact” that I very much disagree with. (Dare you actually tell my child that margarine is a better choice? Oh. I don’t think so.)

So we’ve just stuck with talking about nutrition and making sure our kids eat salads and fruit and good eggs and meat, etc.

I found a book!

When I was prepping for this week’s homeschool curriculum sale, there were some books with fruits and veggies that jumped out at me (surprise, surprise) in one of the Unit Studies Packets. I contacted the author, Amy Blevins, and she was kind enough to send them to me before the sale started so I could look them over so I’d know what to tell you about them.

nutrition-set

I knew the art work would be great. But would the nutrition information be overwhelming? Would I agree with it?

Well, it’s all I can do to wait until fall to start working through these with Malachi. (Does he really need a summer break? Fine. So do I. We’ll start in the fall.)

Man, this book is good. I’m mostly talking about the “Learning About Nutrition” section of this book (though the coloring and dot-to-dot books are fantastic for additional fun). There were just a few points I didn’t agree with, but I think those points will be good to bring up for discussion and further research.

This book is very thorough while being incredibly kid friendly. It’s just over 532 pages (some of it is just for parents), and I feel it will be such a nice unit to study with Malachi – taking just a few minutes each day to increase his knowledge of nutrition and to get him thinking more on his own about good food choices.

I really love how the book is laid out with light reading and small activities throughout (NOT just busy work, thankfully!!). There are even fun writing exercises sprinkled in. Really, I think they’ll be fun – food and creativity and nutrition can actually go together because she wrote this so well.

As you know, nutrition is one of my biggest things so telling you that I like this book kind of means something. :)

Fruits and Veggies Curriculum Sale

Just like all the 200+ books in this week’s curriculum sale, you’ll be amazed at majorly discounted prices. This Nutrition Unit Study pack comes in a set of 14 other unit study books – and they are all 91% off! The complete set costs less than one book normally costs.

TIP: Have big kids and little kids? That’s going to be perfect with this unit study. Littler ones can color and connect the dots while your entire family reads and studies the Learning About Nutrition book. That’s the beauty of unit studies – the whole family can learn together.

ANOTHER TIP: Pick two more bundles to go along with this one to take advantage of the Buy-2-Get-1-Free offer. Then you’ll save even more. It’s almost crazy.

The links in this post are my affiliate links.

I’m excited that there is so much goodness being offered this week in this sale, at such incredible prices! So tell me – how have you been teaching your kids about nutrition?

Visit the Build Your Bundle Curriculum Sale Here.

Heavenly Homemaker's Club Members: Access your homepage and all your fantastic resources here! Not a member yet? Please join us!

Low Sugar Flourless Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies

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If we can make Low Sugar Flourless Peanut Butter Cookies, then surely we can add a little cocoa powder and make Low Sugar Flourless Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies, dontcha think??

It’s too easy.

I had the grand idea of baking these in muffin cups so that they’d take on the look of a peanut butter cup. Too bad that didn’t really work.

low sugar chocolate pb cookies1

They look kinda cute in the muffin liners, but they didn’t really flatten enough to take on the shape of a peanut butter cup. We ate them anyway. It wasn’t a problem.

Low Sugar Flourless Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies

Get my Homemade Natural Peanut Butter Recipe here. You’ll be amazed at how delicious homemade peanut butter tastes (and how easy it is to make)!

Low Sugar Flourless Chocolate Peanut Butter CookiesYum

Low Sugar Flourless Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies
 
Save Print
Author:
Serves: 15-20
Ingredients
  • 2 cups natural peanut butter
  • ⅓ cup sucanat, honey, or brown sugar
  • ¼ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 egg
Instructions
  1. Mix the ingredients together until smooth.
  2. Use a small or medium scoop to place dough balls on a cookie sheet, about two inches apart.
  3. Bake in a 350° oven for 10-12 minutes or until cookies are lightly browned.
  4. Allow them to sit on the cookie sheet for a few minutes before removing them to cool on a rack.

The flavor of these cookies is super delicious. These will give you a great chocolate peanut butter fix, without all the sugar or even flour!

I know I just shared this low sugar cookie list last week, but when it comes to cookies and cutting sugar, I want to be sure you know I have your back.

More Low Sugar Cookie Recipes

I get many of my best ideas from YOU. What other cookie recipes should I play with to see if I can create a low sugar version?

 

Heavenly Homemaker's Club Members: Access your homepage and all your fantastic resources here! Not a member yet? Please join us!

Ways Our Family Saves Money on Homeschool Curriculum

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This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see our disclosure policy.

Here are two things I’ve learned when it comes to buying homeschool curriculum:

  1. Homeschooling should be looked at as an investment.
  2. Homeschooling doesn’t have to be expensive.

In my 14+ years of homeschooling I’ve learned to recognize that just like with healthy eating – it is worth it to invest in the good stuff. Spending money for great curriculum is as worth it as spending money for great food. Ahhh, books and butter. Curriculum and vegetables. It all goes hand in hand, right? Buying high quality is worth the cost.

But there are also many ways to keep your curriculum costs down so that maybe, just maybe, we can enjoy good books and save money too. (Well, of course.)

How to Save Money on Homeschool Curriculum

How to Save Money on Homeschool Curriculum

Here are several ways I’ve saved money through our homeschooling years:

1. Use the Library

This one is too obvious, but still worth a mention. While I have really appreciated owning lots of great literature and having it on our shelves to grab at any time – there are plenty of books we have simply checked out from the library as needed. Cost is free, unless you forget to take the books back on time and have pay late fees. I know nothing about this.

2. Buy Used

Every year, I sit down with a list of books each of our kids will be reading during the school year. If we don’t already own it and I prefer not to have to get it at the library, I check on Amazon and see if I can find a used copy. I have saved so much money doing this.

Occasionally I’ve found needed books at garage sales or I’ve bought curriculum from other homeschool families who are cleaning the closet. (I’ve even been blessed by people handing me their used books for free!) As long as the book isn’t falling apart, buying a used book is just as nice as buying a new book – and you’ll save a few bucks per book too!

books

3. Borrow and Share

One of the best ways I’ve found to save on big ticket items (like Teaching Textbooks or Apologia Science books) is to borrow and share with friends. This only works if our kids are in different grade levels and will therefore not be needing the same books or software at the same time. But coordinating with friends (i.e. I’ll buy the 5th grade book and you buy the 6th grade book, then we’ll swap next year) can be a huge money saver.

4. Divide the Dollar Amount by Number of Kids in Your Family

It has helped me “justify” a quality purchase when I do the math – knowing that I will eventually use each item for all four of my kids. Therefore, if I spend $40 on something, I know it really breaks down to just $10 per kid. Make sense?

5. Use and Reuse

With many of our consumable books through the years, I had our oldest kids leave the book blank and write their answers in a 20¢ notebook instead. That way I could save the consumable book to reuse – instead of having to buy it over and over each time another kid needed it. Yay for Malachi. The youngest kid gets to write in his books.

6. Go Digital

I’m learning to love digital books more an more for these reasons:

  • They save bookshelf space
  • I can organize them easily on my computer
  • They save money
  • I can use them over and over as needed for my family

Last year when the Build Your Bundle Homeschool Curriculum Sale was offered, I grabbed several packages to use for my younger two boys. Ah-ma-zing. Throughout this school year I supplemented our regular curriculum with eBooks I had picked up last year for cheap!!

What great ways have you found to save money on books?

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How Price-Matching Helps Us Eat Real Food

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Price-matching helps us eat real food. That’s all there is to it.

How Price-Matching Helps Us Eat Real Food

Some people live in a big town with many big grocery store options. I do not. Well, it’s more than what tiny towns offer, but still. The closest big name store is an hour away from where we live. In my town we have a Wal-mart and two locally owned stores that have decent deals sometimes.

Before I discovered price-matching at Wal-mart, I skimped on fresh produce purchases. I didn’t even realize I was skimping because I was just doing my best to stick to the budget. I bought the fruits and veggies I could afford, then we rationed them out to make them stretch.

groceries apr16 (1)

About a year and a half ago I discovered price-matching. I don’t know why I hadn’t checked into it before.

Yes. I do know why. I assumed I could only price-match processed foods like boxed cereals and hamburger helper. Therefore I figured it wouldn’t help me much.

Enter: Aldi. The city an hour away from us built its first Aldi store. That’s when I started hearing my friends say things like, “I price-matched Aldi avocados and got them for 39¢ each.” Wai-wai-wait. You did what??

And that’s when I finally started paying attention to what price-matching was.

groceries mar21

Wal-mart accepts price-matches from stores that are as far as one hour away. This is a huge benefit to me, because not only is there an Aldi an hour away, there is a Super Saver, a Hyvee, and now a Fresh Thyme Market! (Several other stores too.) I check Price-Matcherz every week because they do the hard work for me by providing a list of all the best deals. Sure, there are plenty of processed foods to wade through. But the produce!!!

I used to have to pay at least $2.48 for a pound of strawberries in season. Now I can often get them for $1.29! I often get pineapple for $1.29 and cantaloupe for 99¢. I’ve price-matched asparagus for 88¢/pound and 3-pound bags of apples for $1.50.

feb 5 groceries

Not only am I now able to buy oodles and gobs of fresh produce for my family each week, I sometimes even have enough room in the budget to buy some for our local Mission. Price-matching saves us loads of money and ensures that our home is filled with nourishing food.

Read the how-to of how price-matching helps our family.

What grocery store options do you have where you live? Are you a price-matcher or is that something you haven’t needed to mess with?

A couple of other produce money-saving options:

  • I love the savings and quality of Bountiful Baskets. If you’re brave, you can watch as I unpacked our latest BB box. (Beware because out of nowhere I started to boohoo at the end because it was the day before Mother’s Day and I can’t talk about Mother’s Day without crying no matter how hard I try. Facebook Live makes a girl vulnerable. It’s a good thing we’re friends.)
  • I clip coupons when I find them. They are rare.
  • I’m trying to get the hang of Ibotta. Usually there are produce rebate offers! I use the app on my phone to make it easiest. (If you want to try it out, you can get an instant $10 rebate if you sign up through my referral code and redeem a rebate within 2 weeks).

Some of these links are affiliate links.

 

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